Category: Bitcoin

One major event on the horizon next year is the possible approval of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF. Two funds (one of them operated by the Winklevoss twins of “The Social Network” infamy) are currently being considered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission; market watchers expect a decision inside the second quarter of next year.A successful ETF listing would make bitcoin more convenient to trade and could increase demand for the underlying asset. “People would now be able to buy bitcoin through their existing brokerage,” White said. “I do believe institutional [buyers] are factoring that information into the price of bitcoin now.”Underlying the question of bitcoin’s future price is whether such booms or busts aid adoption of the currency. After all, bitcoin can only justify its value if people use it. Within the bitcoin industry, there’s a widespread consensus that the current boom is good for the technology, because it’s been more measured and less intense, unlike the frenzied bidding up of its price in 2013.“I think this is a price rise coming purely out of natural demand for bitcoin as a safe store of value,” said GBMiners’ Goswami. “This is a huge indicator of mass trust in bitcoin, I don’t find anything unhealthy about the present causes for this price rise.”Still, if Beijing does decide to step in again, the market’s prognosticators won’t see it coming.

With a 91% year-to-date gain on the books as of Wednesday, Bitcoin has emphatically shown this year that rumors of its death are widely exaggerated. But the factors behind the gains show why the cryptocurrency remains a highly speculative play, albeit one with a big potential payoff. After trading as low as $358 early in the year, Bitcoin more than doubled over the next five months, with a big portion of the gains coming through a parabolic rise occurring between late May and mid-June. Bitcoin retreated

Bitcoin Halving

Bitcoin Halving ended up being a non event so far. The price of bitcoin barely registered a ripple after the event. Going forward as the market comes to terms with the decline in the supply of new bitcoin being produced the markets will begin to adjust accordingly.

The speculation is over and any dramatic changes regarding the value of Bitcoin will probably happen within the coming months if they occur at all.Bitcoin saw some volatility in the last few months, which was overall positive considering BTC rose from $420 to $630 in a period of 3 months, reaching the $789.78 (Data via Bitfinex) mark on the 16th of June.So what does the future hold for the 12,5 block reward Bitcoin? Some worry the block reward reduction will cause a big portion of miners to abandon the industry, thus slowing the Bitcoin blockchain, which would in turn cause the price to drop and drive even more miners out of the business, in a downward avalanche that could end Bitcoin (a Death Spiral).This would be the worst case scenario for Bitcoin, which is unlikely to happen to the first cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $10.07 billion.

Blockchain, the world’s leading provider of Blockchain tools and software, has announced that the first usable implementation of the Lightning network, Thunder, has been released as an alpha.Lightning networks Lightning networks, as explained on the Lightning Network webpage, are dependent upon the underlying technology of the blockchain.By using real Bitcoin/Blockchain transactions and using its native smart-contract scripting language, it is possible to create a secure network of participants which are able to transact at high volume and high speed.Essentially, they are designed to reduce the volume on the Bitcoin blockchain by transferring transactions, and microtransactions in particular to a sidechain that syncs with the main blockchain at regular intervals.Thunder alpha release In this alpha release, Blockchain’s implementation of the Lightning network, Thunder has both a node and a wallet present. Blockchain also claims that the network can achieve “better-than-Visa scale (100,000 TPS) with only a few thousand nodes.”According to Blockchain.com, Lightning networks have been purely conceptual until now. With the release of the alpha version of Thunder Network, the company makes it the first usable implementation of the Lightning network for off chain bitcoin payments that settles back to the main Bitcoin blockchain.Thus, Thunder has the potential to “facilitate secure, trustless and nearly instant payments, unleash the power of microtransactions, allow the network to handle heavy loads, and increase user privacy.”Blockchain also says that, due to the free market in an open and permissionless network, fees will be significantly lower than with on-chain payments. In addition, for those interested in security, Blockchain encrypts all communications between nodes and wallets using AES-CTR and only allows them to take place after completing authentication.Thunder is said to relay payments over multiple nodes in the network automatically, using encrypted routing, which basically means that no one knows who made a payment, allowing for more privacy.Mats Jerratsch says about the release: “Off-chain payment networks are, at this point, highly experimental. However, it’s important to begin these projects and collaborate with the community, because our ability to scale bitcoin or another virtual currency depends on a launch and learn approach.”Blockchain CEO Peter Smith concluded by saying: “Blockchain is committed to bringing our blockchain technology and the power of open finance to every corner of the world. This release takes us one step closer to realizing that ambition.”

Bitcoiners love the anonymity of Tor. torThe FBI hates it even though Tor is run by a government-backed American nonprofit. Even imperfect anonymity cripples the agency’s war on ‘crime’ – especially on victimless crimes like when people mind their own fiscal business. That’s why agents tried to interview one of Tor’s main software developers, Isis Agora Lovecruft (pseudo), over the last Thanksgiving holidays. Lovecruft jumped a fast plane to Germany to avoid being grilled for information that could ha

The Curious Question of Craig Wright and Bitcoin

Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright, who earlier this week said he would provide “extraordinary proof” that he was the digital currency bitcoin inventor, will not provide any further evidence, according to a post on his blog on Thursday.

Wright did not say his earlier claims were false, however. He said he had not deceived lead developer Gavin Andresen and bitcoin consultant Jon Matonis, both of whom had written blogs in which they said they believed him to be bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, a name assumed to be a pseudonym.‹ Bitcoin founder unmasked? Not everyone is so sure Bitcoin For real? Australian entrepreneur says he’s bitcoin’s inventor Bitcoin CME Group to publish daily bitcoin settlement price›Uncovering Nakamoto’s real identity would solve a riddle dating back to the publication of the open source software behind bitcoin in 2008, a year before its launch.”I’m sorry. I believed that I could do this. I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me,” Wright wrote.”But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot.”After coming under pressure to provide more credible evidence that he was bitcoin’s creator, Wright had published a post on Monday that said he would post “independently verifiable documents and evidence” that would back up his claims.The post could no longer be found on the blog site.Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright says will not give further evidence

The bitcoin world this week learned its absentee father might be Craig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur with nice suits and well-combed hair who claims he invented the digital currency.Wright’s appearance complicates an already vicious custody battle. His claimed brainchild bitcoin – long billed as the future of democratized, digital money – is at the center of an ideological conflict over how to develop the technologies behind the system.Australian Craig Wright claims he is bitcoin founder Satoshi